Unlikely Hero
by PSI-Triforce
Summary: When all of the Smashers are attacked and kidnapped from Smash Mansion, the attackers have to leave one of them behind, so they leave someone who they think couldn't possibly cause them any trouble. How wrong they were... FINISHED!
1. Attack

All of the Smashers were nervous and excited at the same time. A whole new tournament was beginning, and they were each worried about waving goodbye to a close friend or having to say goodbye themselves. Fox had previously had to wave goodbye to Falco, but he was keeping his fingers crossed that Princess Krystal would be joining the group. Donkey Kong was happy that Diddy Kong had arrived at Smash Mansion, and Mario was hoping that Luigi would be able to stay with him, Peach, Bowser and Yoshi.

Many of the Smashers had been reluctant to leave. Marth and Roy left early in the morning, to avoid waking the others, and Young Link had tried to do the same to avoid a sad farewell from his older self, but Peach caught him sneaking out of bed holding the letter informing him that unfortunately, he wouldn't be returning. Both Link and Zelda assured him that he would be allowed to visit Most of the farewells were sad, like that one, but the arrivals of new competitors lifted everyone's spirits. Some, like Lucas, were simply welcomed politely, whereas when Sonic walked through the door, the cheers made it sound like a volcano had erupted.

Dr Mario, Falco, Mewtwo, Pichu, Mr Game & Watch, Young Link, Marth, and Roy had all left the mansion, but many more characters had arrived, such as Wario, Pit, Sonic, and Snake.

The great hall was filled with activity as the characters nervously lined up. Master Hand had gathered them to tell them that there was one newcomer, and one confirmation that a veteran would be staying. As the chatter of the characters slowed down, Master Hand cleared his throat (if he has one) and began to speak.

"This next newcomer comes from the world of Pokemon… please give a big hand to, LUCARIO!" The hall broke out a round of applause as a psychic Pokemon entered the hall and smiled. He opened his mouth to thank the Smashers for such a warm welcome, but Master Hand had already started talking again, and nobody dared to interrupt him.

"Of course, I also have news that one of our veteran fighters will also be appearing in our next tournament. That character is…"

Ness crossed his fingers, Ganondorf held his breath, Captain Falcon looked like he was praying, and Luigi started to sweat and shake.

"Jigglypuff!" exclaimed Master Hand, as the aforementioned four sighed, and the rest of the Smashers applauded. Jigglypuff had already fallen asleep standing up, so Pikachu had to nudge her and inform her that she was still in.

The ripple of applause finished and the Smashers walked back to their respective rooms, while Master Hand went back to his office and started writing things down. It wasn't long before Crazy Hand popped out, and asked in a childish voice,

"Whatcha doing?"

Master Hand sighed and replied, "I'm sorting out the finances, Crazy. With all these newcomers, I have to sort out some space…"

Master Hand let out a disgruntled moan as he added up some more numbers.

"What's wrooooong?" asked Crazy Hand.

"King Dedede is arriving tomorrow with Olimar, and we really don't have enough room. I'm going to have to let another two of the Smashers go. I hate this part of my job…"

Master Hand swooped out of his room and went to find the two unlucky Smashers who would be leaving. He dove into Ganondorf's room first, to break the news to the King of Evil that he would not be returning.

Crazy Hand went too and waited outside the room until his brother was done.

"THIS IS AN OUTRAGE! I AM TO BE FEARED! HOW CAN I NOT RETURN TO FIGHT AGAIN?"

Crazy Hand could guess that Master Hand was nearly done, and soon enough, Master Hand floated through the door and continued down the corridor to another Smasher's room. Master Hand had a bruise on one of his fingers from Ganondorf's rage, but this didn't stop Crazy Hand from stupidly asking, "How did he take it?"

Master Hand sighed and knocked on the door of the second Smasher to be eliminated that day. A young boy opened the door, and immediately his mouth dropped in fear.

"What is it Master Hand?"

Master Hand replied solemnly and slowly, "I'm afraid we have more newcomers arriving tomorrow, so we need to make more room… I hope you understand, Ness."

Ness sat on his bed, but raised his head and bared a weak smile.

"Oh well. I've had a good run, and these tournaments were really fun. Thanks for inviting me in the first place, Mr, I mean, Master Hand."

If Master Hand had a mouth, it would have been smiling. He reluctantly handed Ness the official document to show the boy's resignation in the tournament, and left Ness to pack his things.

Master Hand retired to his study for a short nap, while Crazy Hand played hide and seek with the Ice Climbers. When Master Hand woke up a few hours later, he turned on his microphone and sent another announcement through Smash Mansion.

"ATTENTION SMASHERS. PLEASE MEET IN THE GREAT HALL ENTRANCE IN 5 MINUTES TO BID 2 OF OUR VETERAN COMPETITORS FAREWELL."

In 5 minutes time, the hall was filled with the Smashers, most of them wondering who was leaving. Master Hand floated out in front of them, turned to them and said, "Please give a round of applause for one of our greatest veterans, who is sadly leaving, Ness!"

The hall shook with applause as Ness walked to the door with his case, bowed, and waited to hear who else would be leaving.

"And please give a huge cheer, for the King of Evil, who we just couldn't find room to fit in, Ganondorf!"

A smaller round of applause broke out, but Ganondorf was nowhere near as gracious as Ness. He grabbed his case forcefully and stormed to the door, before turning and screaming,

"You will all regret deciding that I need to leave! Each and every one of you!"

Just as he said this, the power went out in the hall, and as it was evening, it was pretty dark. All eyes immediately turned to Ganondorf, who appeared to be just as scared, and muttered, "That wasn't me, I hadn't even figured out my evil plan yet…"

The Smashers stood nervously and silently, until a strange whirring sound came from above them. They all looked up, to see a small rod coming downwards from the ceiling. Before anyone could speak or ask what it was, it glowed for a second, and then shot lightning around the room. Every Smasher was electrocuted, and after 10 seconds of sizzling, the electricity stopped and all the Smashers collapsed loudly on the ground. The rod retracted itself, to be replaced with a drilling sound as a hole appeared in the roof and people came in, disguised under the shadows. Silently, they began to pick up the Smashers and prepare to take them back with them to wherever their hideout was.

A quiet but bold voice echoed through the hall, but nobody apart from the bad guys was conscious enough to hear it.

"Sir?"

Whoever responded had a deeper voice. "What?"

"Should we take Master Hand and Crazy Hand as well?"

"Yes. Leave no-one."

There was some shuffling, before the voice nervously replied,

"That might not be possible, sir."

"And why not?" The boss voice was getting angrier.

"Two of the people have escaped. It looks like out of the two people by the door, one of them had something to repel the lightning. The other one was just lucky to be close enough to the first one that they were protected too."

Whoever was the boss sounded disappointed as they realised the mistake they had made.

"Ness…the Franklin badge can deflect lightning…I should have known. Ness has escaped, and Ganondorf escaped with him."

"What should we do, sir?"

"Nothing. They will not have stayed together, and Ganondorf will only be concerned about his own safety. Ness is too weak to cause us any problems, and if he gets in our way, we can call in on our twin fighters to dispose of him."

As the boss spoke, he looked behind him to see that the 'twin fighters' were already at work, and together they had picked up numerous Smashers to return with.

"Good thinking sir, but we… we have one more problem."

"What is it now?"

"Well, there's not a lot of us, and there's lots of Smashers. We're going to have to leave one of them behind."

The boss wandered in between the unconscious bodies of Smashers, looking for one that could be left behind.

"Who should I leave," he muttered to himself playfully, "Mario? No, too strong… Link? That would be more foolish than Mario… Aha! I think I know who we can leave."

The boss outstretched his arm and pointed to one of the Smashers.

"Leave that one."

The minion wandered up to his boss and let out a quiet laugh.

"Excellent choice, sir."

As quickly as they had arrived, the invaders left, with the bodies of all the Smashers except one. The lone Smasher gave a moan of pain in their sleep, unaware that it was up to them to save the rest of the Smashers from their doom.


	2. Confusion

Donkey Kong awoke to a sharp pain in his head. He barely remembered what had hurt him, and he rubbed his head slowly. He sat up and looked around, only to see the empty great hall illuminated with the morning daylight.

Slowly he remembered what had happened. A big meeting… Ness and Ganondorf leaving… the lightning rod… and although Donkey Kong couldn't be certain, he swore he heard voices in his subconscious. Other people had entered the room. He was sure of it. Other people had come in, and taken the Smashers away. But if they had, why was he still here?

Donkey Kong's mouth opened a gap as he went through the reasons in his head as to why they would leave him behind. Perhaps this was just a prank… but if it was, there wouldn't have been lightning. Maybe there hadn't been enough room to take him… but whoever had taken the Smashers managed to take everyone else. Maybe they were secret DK fans… but why would they be taking away his friends if they liked him? Lots of things came to mind, but Donkey Kong realised that none of them made any sense.

Reluctantly, Donkey Kong's mind came to the conclusion that maybe they just hadn't seen him as a big enough threat to go after them. They thought he wasn't powerful or clever enough to go up against them and find his friends. Donkey Kong lifted his hands before curling them into fists and angrily slamming the ground with them. He knew he wasn't the cleverest of the Smashers, and he wasn't one of the major favourites in any of the more recent battles, but he always thought he was still strong enough to make up for it.

The more Donkey Kong thought about it, the angrier he got, and he picked up a nearby chair and slammed it into the wall. It bounced of harmlessly, but making a loud clatter. Donkey Kong initially spun around to make sure no-one had heard him losing control, but realised that every single Smasher, and even Master Hand and Crazy Hand were gone. He was alone. He looked at the floor mournfully until he remembered something. His brute force was undeniably stronger than most of the Smashers, and he remembered that he only collapsed unconscious after all of the others, and he remembered that the last thing he saw was the open door and nothing else. Ness and Ganondorf should have been standing there, but they weren't. They must have escaped, and they could help him!

Donkey Kong smiled with pride as he realised that he had worked something remotely clever out, but soon remembered what a tough trip it would be to find his friends, and to fight to bring them back. He scampered quickly back through the corridors to prepare for his journey.

Meanwhile…

"Oh, my head!"

Lucas opened his eyes slowly and painfully, but soon became aware of his surroundings. He was trapped in a metal cage, alongside Ike and Yoshi, who were also waking up. Lucas tried to concentrate and stay calm, but his memories flooded back to him of how all the Smashers had been electrocuted. He looked around the cage, but saw nothing of interest. He ran up to the bars and pressed his face up against them, desperate to look around, but all that was outside the cage was a huge laboratory, presumable underground, and cages containing the other Smashers.

The other Smashers were beginning to stir, and as Lucas looked around, he could see they had been put in different cages depending on their power. Link and Mario had their own cage each, as did Master Hand and Crazy Hand. Samus and Bowser shared one, as did Fox and Pikachu, and Zelda and Kirby. The rest were put together in random groups of three, but nobody looked like they could break out of their cage. Conversation was slow, as most Smashers just made sure that everyone was ok, and then tried to figure out how the hell to break out before whoever kidnapped them returned.

Unfortunately, a shadowy figure entered, and all the Smashers immediately looked towards it. With a cackle, it moved forwards and stated,

"This will be fun…"

Ike spoke up, screaming, "Why have you kidnapped us, monster?"

With a small chuckle, the figure stepped into the light, to reveal… Ganondorf?

Gasps echoed around the underground lab, as questions rose.

"But you were with us! How did you do this? Why?" asked Lucas.

Ganondorf gave a cold glare to Master Hand, and muttered, "Rejection can hurt, and hurt can cause anger… Fear not though, competitors, for I will start a new tournament from now on, with only one change. I will be the master."

The Smasher's looks changed from confused to afraid in a split-second. Before anyone could ask any questions though, Ganondorf raised his voice and screamed,

"FIRST BATTLE, LINK VS ZELDA!"

Everyone knew that he would purposely make them fight against each other, and as Ganondorf raised his hand, with one swish of his magic, Link and Zelda were both summoned from their cages and stood opposite each other in a large cage in the middle of the room. Lucas was still full of questions, and asked,

"I heard that you are powerful, but you're magic couldn't do this!"

Ganondorf aimed another cold glare, but at Lucas, and spat out,

"You people truly did underestimate me! Now, let the battle begin!"

Ganondorf pointed towards Link and Zelda, but they both remained doing nothing, unwilling to fight.

"Why aren't you fighting?" yelled Ganondorf with pure rage in his voice.

"Zelda's my princess, I'm not going to fight her!" replied Link.

"That doesn't matter, the fight must go on!" Ganondorf screamed back, sounding as if he was getting angrier.

"Well then I forfeit the match!" Link screamed back.

Ganondorf looked shocked, but then burst out laughing, before waving his hand and teleporting both Link and Zelda back to their cages.

"Have it your way then, Link. If you forfeit the match, however, you lose. And I as a master do not tolerate losing."

With a twisted grin, Ganondorf pressed a button on the supercomputer behind him, and a rod that looked incredibly similar to the lightning rod back at the mansion appeared at the top of Link's cage. He barely had time to react before his cage filled with electricity again and he was electrocuted completely. Zelda screamed and closed her eyes, while many other Smashers turned away in disgust. Ganondorf kept laughing at the sight of his nemesis being hurt, whilst Link just hoped that his torture would be over soon.

After at least a minute, the electricity stopped flowing and Link fell to his knees before collapsing on the floor, unconscious. The Smashers were silent with shock, as Ganondorf let out another dark laugh and turned to the rest of them saying,

"Let that be a warning to anyone else who doesn't take these fights seriously."

"Wait," interrupted Lucas, "Where's Donkey Kong?"

Ganondorf didn't let this question phase him, as he muttered, "Donkey Kong was left behind for storage reasons, but he will not be causing me any problems, so don't worry, you'll be staying here for a nice long time!"

The Smashers cowered, unaware that Donkey Kong was planning to come to their rescue as Ganondorf spoke.

Donkey Kong had taken quick looks in everyone's rooms to see if they had anything that could help him on his rescue attempt, but found mostly nothing. In the Pokémon Trainer's room, he found a spare rucksack. Donkey Kong immediately looked inside the rucksack, but was disappointed to find only a spare Pokéball inside. Still, it would be useful to carry other things. In Diddy Kong's room, he uncovered a picture of both of them, standing back on DK Island with Cranky Kong, and he put it in the bag with a smile. In Samus' room, he found a strange looking device, but when he touched it, it gave a few beeps and then self-destructed in a small explosion. Wario's room was surprisingly clean except for one scrap of paper on the floor. Picking up the scrap, Donkey Kong noticed that it was actually one of the letters to inform a competitor that they would not be returning. The name and signature had been torn out, but Donkey Kong put it in his bag just in case. Wario was still relatively new, so the letter must have been left there by whoever owned the room before him.

Finding nothing of use in anyone else's room, Donkey Kong headed straight to the kitchen, where he filled up the remaining space in the rucksack with bananas. Luckily for him, usually he and Diddy Kong would be eating them every mealtime, so the fridge was full of them, and he easily filled the rucksack. Clearing some room for a small bottle of water, Donkey Kong smiled as he realised how well prepared he was being, until he saw a flaw in his plan.

He had no idea where to go.

Trying to think of where to go, he thought of his options. He could try to find the Smashers, or try to find help in the form of Ness or Ganondorf first. He chose to look for Ness or Ganondorf.

With a plan set in his mind, Donkey Kong ran to the door of the great hall, took one last look around it, and ran out, desperate to save the Smashers. He didn't know that as he ran straight into the forest outside Smash Mansion, he was being watched by one of Ganondorf's minions, who gave a shallow laugh and chased after Donkey Kong into the dark forest.


	3. Meeting

Donkey Kong ran through the jungle quickly, but noisily, thrashing through branches and bushes. As he slowed down, he still heard crunching noises of sticks being broken and the gentle rustling of leaves being disturbed, but he dismissed it as ordinary noise for a jungle and continued running. The jungle got thicker and tougher, but Donkey Kong kept going, forcing himself not to give up. Unfortunately, sooner or later, he had to slow down, and he gradually came to a complete halt, panting out of breath. It was hopeless just to keep running in any direction, and he was losing energy. He reached into the backpack he had taken from Smash Mansion and pulled out one of the bananas. He began to peel it, but felt too lazy, and threw the whole thing in his mouth at once before chewing a few times and swallowing.

Despite his preparations, he still had no idea where to go, and it was clearly going to be a big problem if he ever wanted to find any of the other Smashers again. He pulled out another banana, but had the energy to peel it this time before eating it. As he ate, he was unaware that behind him, his stalker had finally caught up with him. The shadowy figure approached slowly behind him, with arms outstretched, until Donkey Kong clumsily threw his banana peel behind himself, and the mysterious figure slipped on it and swore loudly. Donkey Kong looked behind himself to see the crumpled heap of whatever was once stalking him, and his initial reaction was that they could help him. He foolishly stuck out his hand to help the figure up, only to be met by a laser in the chest.

Donkey Kong staggered backwards as the figure stepped out into the sunlight, to reveal that he was… Falco? Donkey Kong tried to remember as much about Falco as he could recall. He left Smash Mansion, and it was unconfirmed whether he would be returning or not… that was all he knew! Falco wasted no time in jumping over the confused Kong and firing another laser his way. Donkey Kong staggered backwards, pulled on his small rucksack, and prepared to fight.

Falco charged through the air and prepared a kick with his strong talons. Donkey Kong held up his arm to try and stop the blow, but when Falco sank his claws into it, he howled in pain and held his arm with his other hand. Falco let out a cold, harsh laugh, before charging forwards with his head ducked, bowling Donkey Kong over. Donkey Kong stood up groggily while Falco aimed another laser at his back. Luckily, it missed this time, and gave Donkey Kong enough time to stand up, turn around, and face his attacker. Falco looked different from the last time Donkey Kong had seen him. His physical appearance was the same, but Donkey Kong could feel the anger radiating from him.

Falco didn't waste time standing around though, and soon charged back at Donkey Kong with outstretched claws. Donkey Kong couldn't react quickly enough to attack, but managed to dodge to the left. Falco turned around, but Donkey Kong had already scampered up a nearby tree. Falco pressed a button on the metal attachment on his wrist, and a small laser emerged and scanned the surroundings, soon finding Donkey Kong. Falco let out a small laugh as he jumped high into the sky and shot another laser into a tree. The sound could be heard of a laser hitting a branch, which broke, sending Donkey Kong tumbling back down to the ground.

The Kong realised then that it was of no use to hide, and he stood back up, ready to fight Falco, and hopefully get answers from him. Falco raised an eyebrow towards his opponent, but his face remained as a powerful smirk. He charged at Donkey Kong and swiped, but his blow was weak, and he found himself being smacked in the head with one of Donkey Kong's powerful arms. He clutched his face with one wing, and all looks of cockiness and sarcasm were gone from his face, replaced with an unnatural anger. He swooped towards Donkey Kong again and tried to slash with his sharp claws, but Donkey Kong ducked and rolled backwards.

Falco crouched down for a second before dashing forwards at almost impossible speed. He didn't even bother to try and scratch; he just rammed into Donkey Kong and barged him over. Donkey Kong's head hit the ground, and he almost blacked out. Groaning, he wondered what the other Smashers were doing, and prayed that it wasn't all up to him to save them.

Unfortunately, it was.

In the underground lair where Ganondorf was still keeping the Smashers, the King of Evil was having the time of his life, running the other fighters in matches under the rule that if you lose, you get electrocuted. Every Smasher had refused to fight, but Ganondorf always proclaimed it as 'forfeiting the match' and electrocuted whichever one had spoken first. The only thing that annoyed Ganondorf was the unbreakable teamwork the captured Smashers showed. Despite all of his attempts to turn them against each other and make them fight, the Smashers remained united.

Snake had decided to face electrocution to save his opponents, the Ice Climbers, and Ike had taken a shocking to save Lucas. Luigi faced the punishment to save Peach, and Bowser surprised everyone by taking a shock to save Mario. When Bowser awoke from his punishment, he informed everybody loudly that he was so tough, it barely hurt, but everyone knew that even the Koopa King was worried and knew that working together would be the only way to get out.

However, the worst punishment always fell to Link.

As the arch-nemesis of Ganondorf, it was no surprise that Link was constantly picked for matches, and it was even less of a surprise when he refused to fight, no matter who his opponent was. Sonic, Pikachu, and even Bowser again, were all saved by Link's downright refusal to harm anyone else. His heroism came at a cost though, and he was now always unconscious, apart from five-minute moments where he would wake up and instantly be put in another match, only to be 'punished' again.

They all shared the same hope that Donkey Kong and Ness had escaped, and that they would come charging through the door to save them, but their hopes were slowly being killed.

Donkey Kong snapped out of the pain and heard Falco running up to attack him again, so he sprung off the ground and clouted the bird with his feet. Before Falco had a chance to counter-attack, Donkey Kong head-butted him fiercely into the ground. He saw Falco struggling to get out, so he started to power a punch. Falco was struggling and swearing, but Donkey Kong didn't lose focus. Just as Falco pushed himself out of the earth, Donkey Kong let his power go and punched Falco as hard as he could. Falco went flying away through the forest, but amazingly started staggering back. Donkey Kong started powering his arms again, but Falco surprised him by saying,

"Wait, I come in peace!"

Donkey Kong paused for a second, but Falco was pointing to a shiny object on the ground in front of him. Donkey Kong let his guard down and looked, and saw a small metal clamp. He had seen it on Falco's wrist, but assumed it was part of his normal gear. On it's own, though, it was obviously sinister. Falco picked it up and spoke in a pained voice, "This, is your standard mind control device… Donkey Kong… It's great to see you…"

Donkey Kong was not the greatest at holding conversations, but after years of talking to Cranky and Diddy back in Kongo Jungle, he had grasped human speech well enough to be understood.

"Falco! Where are the others?" he grunted.

Falco obviously expected the question, and answered, "I don't know. All I know is that most of the Smashers have been captured, and most of the ones that weren't are being controlled like I was. And don't ask whose behind all this, because whoever is, it's someone clever enough to not let us minions see."

Donkey Kong's face dropped, but Falco patted him on the shoulder.

"Listen, Kong. The boss already knows that my control device is off. If he knows I'm telling his enemy secrets, he won't be best pleased. I'm going to have to wait until you leave, then put it on again."

Donkey Kong's face dropped more, and he stuttered questions.

"But… how will I find everyone?"

Falco raised an eyebrow and said, "Kong, you just beat one of our boss' crazed minions, who was also an excellent fighter to begin with. You shouldn't worry."

Donkey Kong slumped down, but quickly spoke up again.

"Ness and Ganondorf! They ran out! They could help!"

It was Falco's time to let his face drop.

"Our boss has Ganondorf. He was easy to catch. Our boss said that he would make a very useful scapegoat during his plan. I can vaguely remember seeing Ness… he wasn't caught because our boss only sent Pichu after him. I think he went somewhere that way."

Falco raised his wing and pointed to one of many small paths in between the trees. "You should look there. If the boss has many more people as good as me here, you're going to need all the help you can get."

Donkey Kong let out a small chuckle hearing Falco's boasting. All that time spent doing dirty-work hadn't changed his personality one bit. However, at that moment, Falco's expression drastically changed. He grabbed Donkey Kong strongly by the shoulder and said firmly. "You have to leave. Now. The boss is on his way."

Donkey Kong's eyes widened, but Falco merely pointed back at the rugged path and muttered, "Go!"

Donkey Kong didn't any more persuading. He tore down the path as quickly as he could, and when he looked back over his shoulder, Falco had gone, and Donkey Kong was sure he was back under his boss' control.

After a few minutes of running, Donkey Kong slowed down to a walk, looking back every now and again to make sure nobody was following him. One time when he looked back, he accidentally collided with a large lump of rock, but when he looked closer, he saw a well-hidden entrance. He was at the opening of a cave. Slowly, he worked his way inside, which was no easy task considering his size. As he walked further in, light became weaker, and soon he could barely see a few feet in front of him. However, the lack of sight in the cave helped Donkey Kong to hear something very quiet. A small whimpering sound was coming from further up the tunnel, and Donkey Kong's first reaction was that it could be an enemy. Walking forwards slowly, the sound got clearer and clearer, until Donkey Kong got too close, and accidentally knocked a large rock over, making a rumbling sound.

The whimpering stopped, and Donkey Kong opened his mouth to speak, but someone spoke before him.

"Wh-whose there? I- I'm not afraid of you!"

Remembering the first words Falco said to him, Donkey Kong murmured,

"Wait, I come in peace!"

There was an awkward silence, before the young boy stepped out from his hiding place. Clutching a small torch in one hand, giving enough light to see the blue and yellow stripes on his shirt, the small fringe of black hair protruding from under his red baseball cap, and the yellow-laced red trainers covered in dirt, there stood Ness.


	4. Ness

Ness ran for his life. He didn't know what had happened back at Smash Mansion, but he didn't want to stay around to find out. When lightning had struck everyone, he and Ganondorf had been saved, but Ness didn't know how. He didn't have any time to ask Ganondorf for his opinion, because the King of Evil had fled much quicker than Ness had, so Ness was left alone, and scared.

After running for at least an hour, fatigue finally got the better of Ness as he collapsed on the ground and panted heavily. Sweat ran down his short black hair and dripped onto the ground as he stared back at where he had come from, only to see his path concealed by various trees and bushes. As he wondered how the heck he had escaped from a mansion where everyone else had been electrocuted and kidnapped, he slipped his hands into his pockets to see if he had anything useful. Finding only his old ATM card, his yoyo, a bread roll, and a town map of Onett, he sighed. Looking down at his shirt though, revealed how he had escaped; the Franklin badge was pinned against his shirt.

Breathing quickly and quietly to try and calm himself down, Ness almost had a heart attack when he heard voices from behind the bushes. He instinctively reached for his baseball bat strapped behind his back, and swung it out to carry it in front of himself. As he edged nearer to the voices, they became clearer.

"Are you sure this is the right way?"

"Trust me, this is the direction the weird glove thing told us to come. Why do you have to keep asking, anyway?"

"If you'd spent as much time as I have leading armies of Pikmin against ferocious creatures in forests, you'd be more wary too…"

Ness had heard enough to know that these people could either help him, or be trying to kill him. Either way, he figured that it would be best to appear armed. He waited for a few more seconds to make sure that whoever was talking was near, and then he let out a war cry and jumped through the bushes with his baseball bat ready to attack.

If Ness was trying to shock these two people, his plan was working perfectly. One of them backed away quickly and got into a fighting stance, while the much larger one screamed and tripped over his mallet backing away. The large one sat up and screamed,

"What was that for?! You scared the hell out of me!"

Ness couldn't help but gasp at their different appearances. The one who fell over was slowly getting up, and he looked like an oversized yellow penguin, except with a red hat, a red and white coat, and a gigantic hammer. The other person was a lot smaller, although they looked a lot older, and they wore a small mechanised spacesuit. Before Ness could say anything though, the little man in a spacesuit held out a tatty piece of paper with Smash Mansion on it and muttered,

"You wouldn't happen to know where this place is, would you?"

Ness had never gone from feeling so tragically scared to so overwhelmingly happy in his life, and he made the penguin figure fall over for a second time when he dived wildly at him to give him a hug in his ecstatic state.

A few minutes later, Ness had calmed down and explained what had happened at Smash Mansion to the two others, who called themselves Captain Olimar and King Dedede.

"So, you're the only one who got out safely?" asked King Dedede with a worried look on his face.

"No, Ganondorf got out too, but he didn't stick around," Ness replied, panting out of breath.

"Wow," muttered Olimar. "So what are we going to do about it?"

Before Ness could respond, a harsh voice sounded behind them.

"Nothing, that's what you'll do!"

Before anyone could react, a young boy in a green tunic charged forwards and dove into Olimar, pummelling him onto the ground. King Dedede was barged into by someone wearing a doctor's coat, and Ness could only watch for a second before a small yellow mouse charged at him and electrified him, yelling "PICHU!"

Ness rolled and stood up quickly, but Pichu charged again. As a basic reaction, Ness plucked his baseball bat out from behind his back and swung it quickly. It connected with Pichu and sent him flying into Dr Mario, stopping him from pelting King Dedede with vitamins. King Dedede stood up, but Pichu screamed powerfully and called down a lightning bolt from the sky. It struck Dedede in the side, and he fell down, sparks flying from around him. Before Pichu could strike again, Young Link was flung into his side, and they both fell to the ground. Ness and Dr Mario looked over to Olimar, who had quickly plucked a small army of 10 Pikmin. Olimar pointed towards Pichu and blew his whistle, sending the little creatures to attack their enemy. The Pikmin all jumped onto Pichu, and the yellow mouse rolled around on the ground to try and get them off, but failed.

Dr Mario turned back to face Ness, but when he looked, Ness was gone. For a second, he wondered if Ness had run away, but those thoughts were destroyed when he heard the shout of 'PK FIRE!' behind him, and moments later, Dr Mario was rolling on the ground trying to put out the flames.

Young Link slashed his sword at Olimar, but Olimar's suit was too tough to receive damage. Olimar was slower than Young Link, but he managed to kick him a few times before the small Hylian got angry, and pulled out a bomb before aiming it directly at Olimar. While Olimar was forced down by the force of the blast, Young Link prepared an arrow, but when he fired it, Olimar caught it and threw it back. It scratched Young Link's arm, and he let out a small cry of pain, but he soon pulled out another bomb. Olimar crouched and tried to shield himself, but Young Link didn't aim at him. Instead, he threw the lit explosive at the pile of Pikmin on Pichu, and Olimar let out a gasp. However, the bomb was whacked with the mallet of King Dedede, who had recovered and hit the bomb far away easily.

Things were looking up, but Young Link angrily grabbed Olimar's whistle and blew it as hard as he could. It gave off a loud screech, and the Pikmin stopped attacking Pichu and went back to Olimar, as if they had been instructed. King Dedede whacked the whistle out of his hand, but it flew into the sky, leaving Olimar powerless to instruct the Pikmin. Pichu charged up a skull bash and flew through the air into Olimar, who was barged over before Pichu called down another lightning bolt that went right through him and his Pikmin. The Pikmin fell to the ground and gave of sad noises as they died. Olimar didn't get up.

King Dedede angrily struck Pichu far off into the distance with his mechanised mallet, but soon faced a downward stab by Young Link and a megavitamin straight to the head courtesy of Dr Mario. Ness charged in to help with his baseball bat, but when he tried to strike Young Link, his enemy blocked it with his sword, before Dr Mario charged at Ness and punched him like a coin-block, sending shimmering gold coins all over the ground. Ness responded by whacking the doctor with a yoyo, but his weak attack had almost no effect on the ruthless Dr Mario, who spun around quickly, punching Ness as he went around, and finishing with a final blow that sent Ness sprawling onto the ground.

Ness looked up groggily to see King Dedede trying to get up, but failing as Young Link slashed at him over and over again. King Dedede struck him aside with his mallet, but Dr Mario charged straight at his stomach and forced him down again. Ness knew he was beaten when Pichu charged back through the forest and, using a quick attack, rammed him quickly from both directions. King Dedede looked dazed, but he still had just enough energy to turn his head towards Ness and say,

"Kid, get out of here! Run!"

Ness stood still for a second before turning and running through the forest. Pichu tried to keep up with him but another Pikmin was thrown at him by Olimar, who had just regained consciousness. As he turned back while running, Ness saw King Dedede and Olimar doing their best to hold off the attackers, but failing. Eventually, Ness lost sight of them as he ran past endless bushes and trees, but he kept running. He didn't dare stop.

Eventually, after at least an hour, Ness stopped running and collapsed where he was. Puffing and panting, he forced himself to at least keep walking, to try and avoid capture. That was when he saw the cave. The perfect place to hide. Although it looked small, it was dark and gloomy. If anyone came in, Ness could ambush them easily. He paused for a second to regain his energy, before running into the cave, and not stopping until he accidentally collided with a rock much further in.

Sitting down in his hiding place, Ness tried to make himself comfortable, but there wasn't much room. The only other problem was that there wasn't enough light, so Ness reached around for any wood he could find and, finding an old branch, whispered 'PK Fire' and lit it gently. It was then that he heard voices. Voices outside the cave were talking, but they sounded like they were on the other side of the wall Ness was leaning against. After pressing one of his ears to the wall, he immediately recognised one of the voices as Falco. He recognised the other voice, but he couldn't place who it was. He listened to each word as carefully as he could. Apparently the person Ness didn't recognise was angry.

"Dammit Falco, I will not tolerate failure! I gave you direct orders to subdue Donkey Kong, or at least equal him, and what did you do? You lost!"

Ness knew when Falco was talking, but he sounded like a robot. Something wasn't right with him, like he was being controlled.

"I apologise, master. I assure you, I will not repeat my awful performance today."

"You had better not. You're just lucky I'm in a good mood. Apparently, two newcomers were supposed to arrive today, but our other forces caught them."

"Yes master, I was told already."

"Did you hear what happened to Ness?"

"I hear he escaped, master."

"He didn't escape. He fled. He left his only allies out of pure cowardice. Something tells me he won't be causing us any more trouble."

Ness' face fell, and his eyes watered. He had left two of his new friends to be captured, after all they had done to defend him. As a tear fell from his eye, he clenched his fist tight. He would save them, personally, and he would defeat whoever was ordering them to be captured.

"Anyway Falco, return to base for now. Tomorrow, scout for Ness and Donkey Kong. Mainly Donkey Kong, as Ness will probably already teleported back to Onett."

"Yes, master."

As the two voices stopped, Ness sat, wondering how he would ever defeat the bad guys all on his own. His thoughts were interrupted though, when a large crunch came from the cave's entrance. Someone was coming inside!

Ness stood up, shaking, and let out a small whimper. The figure was getting closer, and even accidentally knocked over a rock. Ness tried to sound courageous, but his voice was full of fear.

"Wh-whose there? I- I'm not afraid of you!"

The figure paused for a second, as if thinking, and then grunted,

"Wait, I come in peace!"

Ness slowly stepped out to see who it was, gripping the torch tightly in his hand. The light from the fire slowly washed over the dark figure revealing their brown fur, their powerful fists, and their friendly face. There, with a few bruises and scratches, but still a look of hope on his face, stood Donkey Kong.


	5. Newcomers

Donkey Kong rolled onto his other side and tried to sleep. Finding Ness had been a relief, but it was little consolation when the rest of the Smashers were still gone. After a brief chat with the psychic boy about their experiences of the last day, they tried to make a plan, but it was harder than it sounded. Eventually, they decided to try and free their enemies from their mind control, then attack whoever was behind it all. If they took out one enemy Smasher at a time, it could work, but things always sounded easier than they were.

Something that made the pressure Donkey Kong felt even worse was the trust Ness bestowed in him. The moment Ness laid eyes upon another peaceful Smasher, he seemed to relax. It only made Donkey Kong more nervous to be around someone who expected him to be a big help. Ness' admiration made Donkey Kong feel proud at first, but soon just mounted more pressure on him and added one more person he felt he was responsible for. Pushing these thoughts out of his mind as far as he could, Donkey Kong tried harder to get to sleep. He was grateful that Ness had agreed with his first idea, which was that as the enemy were sleeping, they should rest too.

Donkey Kong turned and rolled, but he just couldn't relax. He tried to make a pillow out of branches and rocks that were also occupying the cave, but nothing helped. With a reluctant sigh, he lay on his back and yawned. There wasn't much light in the cave, as Ness had long since blown out the lit branch he had used as a small campfire. However, this didn't stop the moonlight creeping through the entrance of the cave and reflecting off something shiny that made Donkey Kong jump. Looking down at his chest, he saw that someone had put a badge there. After seeing badges like this that overtook people's minds, Donkey Kong immediately panicked and picked it off as quick as he could, but when he looked closer, he saw nothing sinister. It was hard to read what the badge said with such dim light, but Donkey Kong looked closer and saw the word 'Mother' on it, with a lightning bolt going through it.

Curiosity got the better of Donkey Kong as he slowly stepped outside the cave to get a better glimpse at the badge, and finally read the two words on either side of it 'Franklin Badge'. Donkey Kong almost dropped the badge when he realised what it was. This was no ordinary badge. He remembered Ness telling him that it reflected any projectile. It was how Ness escaped, and how he had avoided capture, and now, Donkey Kong found out that Ness had snuck it onto him instead.

Donkey Kong inspected the badge closely before putting it back on and slowly walking back into the cave. He groaned as he realised that if he couldn't tell when Ness snuck a badge onto him, it would be easy for someone to sneak a mind-control device on him, but as he lay down and finally succumbed to sleep, he thought of all the people he would be fighting for to free everyone.

The Smashers…

Falco…

Diddy Kong…

Ness…

Morning came fairly soon, and sunlight woke up Ness and Donkey Kong from their slumber, reminding them that they had a task to complete now. Donkey Kong handed Ness a few bananas from his rucksack and didn't wait for a response before eating some himself. Ness didn't have as big an appetite as Donkey Kong, and only ate one banana, but was soon ready to go. He didn't exactly know WHERE he would be going, but he was ready nonetheless. He wouldn't let himself be taken by surprise like he was yesterday, when he met the two newcomers…

"Wait," piped up Ness as he had an idea, "Didn't Master Hand still have a few more newcomers to arrive after Olimar and King Dedede?"

Donkey Kong didn't need Ness' idea to be explained to him. If more people were arriving, and they joined forces with the enemies, things would get a lot harder. However, if Ness or Donkey Kong found them first, it would make the fight against the enemies easier. Donkey Kong only had to look at Ness and say, "Back to Smash Mansion?"

Ness nodded, and they set off, hoping to find help.

When they arrived, the Mansion was in the same state as it was left. The main door was open and the hall was empty. It was spooky seeing the giant place that was practically a second home to them, completely empty of all life. Ness stepped forwards slowly, with Donkey Kong following behind him, being much more curious and intrigued than Ness. As they steadily moved forwards through the building, they saw more empty rooms. They were searching for any signs of another living being who could help them, but found no-one.

Ness led the way dejectedly back to the entrance with a disappointed Donkey Kong in tow, but as he walked back out, another figure ran straight him and they collided painfully. Ness sat up, rubbing his head, to see another small child, except he was dressed in a green tunic like Link, and looked like no kind of person Ness had ever seen before. The small figure picked up his green hat from the floor with incredible speed and said quickly,

"You have to help me, I was with two other guys coming here for some tournament thing, and we're being attacked!"

Ness and Donkey Kong were relieved to find someone else, but were alarmed to hear about the fight that was going on. They chased after the tunic-clad boy without question, and within a minute found a battle scene. Falco and Mewtwo, both wearing mind-control devices, were attacking two others; a wolf covered in strange technological equipment, and a strangely constructed robot with a white body and red arms.

Donkey Kong and Ness wasted no time in jumping into the battle and helping. Donkey Kong tackled Falco for the second time in two days while Ness charged into Mewtwo and elbowed him roughly. Mewtwo was shocked, but fought back quickly, using his mental powers to levitate Ness high into the air and slam him back onto solid ground with a sickening crunch. Ness stood up slowly, and murmured 'PK Flash!' Mewtwo glided back in the air, but the spell was aimed at Falco, who flew back in shock from the blast, leaving him open to be power-punched by Donkey Kong. Falco let out a roar of pain as his image flew far away, leaving all five of the good Smashers to take on Mewtwo. Mewtwo took one look at the crowd, and quickly teleported away from them.

Donkey Kong and Ness let out small breaths, while the newcomers introduced themselves.

"My name's Link, but these two call me 'Toon Link' for some reason." The child in the green tunic said, bowing, but holding onto his hat to make sure it didn't fall off.

"I'm Wolf. Fox or Falco may have mentioned me. Probably not in a good way, though."

The robot didn't speak, but instead pointed to the side of his arm, where the word 'ROB' was written.

Ness and Donkey Kong quickly told them the situation that was going on, and Toon Link seemed eager to join forces.

"This is going to be such a cool adventure! I'll get to fight Ganondorf again!" Toon Link turned to Wolf and ROB hopefully, but while ROB nodded, Wolf seemed reluctant. He paused for a few seconds, then admitted, "It'll be a long time before I get another excuse to beat up Falco, so count me in for now. But could we go to this 'Smash Mansion' place first? There's gotta be food there, right?"

Donkey Kong led the way back to Smash Mansion so that his new companions could eat, except for ROB, who seemed to run off solar power. As Wolf discovered the kitchen, which still had a few bananas and other food items, Ness decided to try and stay observant.

Wolf wasn't cutting back on trying to subdue his appetite, and shoved multiple sandwiches into his mouth. After swallowing a huge chunk, he turned to Ness and ordered, "Hey kid, see if there's any chicken in the fridge, will ya?"

"There won't be," replied Ness without checking, "not since Falco saw some and took it as a personal insult. We might have some ham or something, though."

Ness walked towards the fridge, unaware that Toon Link was evidently hungry and wanted to look inside too, and so followed him. This wouldn't have been so bad, if Ness had noticed before opening the fridge door and accidentally hitting Toon Link in the head with it. Ness heard the thump and groan though, and shut the door again to see Toon Link clutching his nose while his hat lay on the floor, knocked off in the accident. Ness picked it up and quickly apologized.

"Sorry Link, didn't see you there."

Toon Link wasn't concerned about the apology. He was only concerned with one thing.

"My hat, where's my hat?"

Ness held it out and uttered, "Don't worry, I got it."

"Give it back! Now! Give it back!!"

Toon Link reached for his hat, but Ness thought something was suspicious and pulled it back.

"What's so special about this hat anyway?"

Toon Link lost his temper quickly and dived at Ness, sending them both crashing into a wall. Ness was surprised with a barrage of punches, but used PK Thunder to shock Toon Link off him. Toon Link growled and dived in to fight again, but Ness dodged. Donkey Kong, Wolf, and ROB were all watching at this point, but Toon Link wasn't backing down. He pulled out his sword and charged forwards, striking terror into Ness, who rolled out of the way, only to be struck with a quickly drawn boomerang from Toon Link. Ness saw something shiny as he stood up, and gasped, before diving towards Toon Link and exchanging a large number of kicks and punches.

However, Donkey Kong soon split the fight up by grabbing Toon Link by the shoulders and picking him up, while Wolf did the same to Ness. Donkey Kong was about to ask what was going on when the hysterical Ness screamed, "Check his head! Check his head!!"

Donkey Kong looked confusedly at Toon Link's head, only to drop him in surprise when he saw a mind-control device planted there, previously hidden by his hat.

"It's an ambush Donkey Kong, run!"

Donkey Kong turned around, but ROB stood menacingly in the doorway, with his arms outstretched to show the device planted on him too. Ness elbowed Wolf in the stomach to escape his grasp, but when he turned to face his opponent, Wolf was laughing and pointing at a similar device on his belt. The enemy had found these newcomers first.

Ness backed away from Wolf into Toon Link, who laughed and sliced with his sword, leaving a deep cut on Ness' arm. Donkey Kong picked up ROB and hurled him threw the air at Toon Link, leaving the two immobilized for a quick second. Donkey Kong dashed towards Ness and picked him up easily before turning and trying to escape. Wolf approached quickly, but Ness managed to scream 'PK Fire' while in Donkey Kong's arms and distract him. However, ROB was up quickly and pushed Donkey Kong over, leaving him and Ness in a crumpled pile. Donkey Kong stood up first and muttered, "Run Ness, run!"

Ness paused to consider fleeing, but stood up and shouted, "No! I'm not running away this time!"

This brought around a laugh from Toon Link, but his laugh finished abruptly when Ness tackled him and started a flurry of punches and kicks. Donkey Kong was doing a good job of holding up Wolf and ROB, until Wolf pulled another mind control device out of his belt and aimed it at the big ape. Donkey Kong was startled and ducked as the device missed him by inches and flew just past Ness and Toon Link.

Toon Link pushed Ness off and ran to get the spare device, while Donkey Kong kicked back Wolf and ROB with a huge amount of force. He ran towards Ness again, grabbed him, and looked for an escape. Seeing a window, he quickly approached it and elbowed it, sending glass flying everywhere, but fortunately, none hit him or Ness. As Donkey Kong saw Toon Link picking up the device and aiming it at him, he quickly turned and hurled Ness straight through the empty window. Ness went flying through the air, but with his last airborne sight of Donkey Kong, saw that the device had struck it's target.

Donkey Kong was now being controlled by the enemy.


	6. Captured

Snake's eyes went from Lucas back to Ganondorf as he muttered, "I'll take the shocking…"

Lucas sighed in relief and whispered an almost silent thanks before wincing as Snake was electrocuted in front of all the Smashers. After what seemed like an eternity, but was in reality just a few seconds, Snake's punishment stopped, as he breathed heavily and was teleported back to his cage. Lucas was teleported back moments later, and barely had enough energy to nervously give Snake a thumbs-up to show his appreciation.

Although Ganondorf had laughed off the initial response from the Smashers to take punishments for each other, he was clearly getting angrier with the reluctance to fight. He muttered something under his breath, but his attention was stolen by four arrivals who entered the lair. The first was Toon Link, who smiled smugly before muttering,

"Ganondorf, we've got him!"

The other Smashers looked to see who 'he' was, but soon found out as Donkey Kong, still wearing a mind-control device, followed after Toon Link, just before Wolf and ROB. Ganondorf let out a single, harsh laugh before he noticed Toon Link walking further towards him, fidgeting as if he had an awkward interruption to make. He did.

"Erm, Ganondorf? We don't have a spare cell for him at the moment… should we continue using the mind control device for now? It's just… it's our last one for now…"

Ganondorf let out a dry smirk and muttered, "Do not doubt my plans, servant. I know what we should do. Put Donkey Kong in…"

Ganondorf raised his hand and pointed to the single occupant of one cell.

"Put Donkey Kong there."

"But what about the other occupant there? You know we can't have many powerful people in the same cell, or they'll try to escape!"

Ganondorf looked angrily at Toon Link after his interruption, and yanked him up so they were face to face.

"I told you to not doubt my plans," he whispered, eerily quiet, but he put the young boy down. "However, you make a point… If Ness is to be caught, and room needs to be made for Donkey Kong, this is what you should do…"

Ness rolled onto his side and groaned as he slowly regained consciousness. As soon as he remembered where he was, he sat bolt upright, although immediately regretting it due to a large pain in his back. Reaching around, he pulled out a large number of stones that had been embedded there, before trying to concentrate on his surroundings. It was quite light, but the sun was setting in the sky. It must have been dusk. Standing up slowly, Ness looked down to see his shirt stained with blood. He let out a small yelp in panic and tried to search for his wound, but it wasn't hard to find. Holding his hand over a gash in his forehead, he focussed as hard as he could on remembering how to cast a healing spell. Ever since he came to Smash Mansion, he considered healing himself to be cheating, so he never did it, and over time, had almost forgotten the spell.

He whispered the words, "PK Healing" and hoped that it had some kind of effect. Luckily for him, it did, and the gash started to heal. Feeling only slightly better, Ness stood up, still not remembering the events that had taken place before he was knocked out. He looked around, and saw a dent in a nearby tree where he must have hit it. Rubbing his head, he suddenly realised what had happened. Scouting his surroundings for Smash Mansion, he spotted it not too far away and burst into a run to get there. Arriving at the doors in less than a minute's time, he shouted, "Donkey Kong?" but got no response. Swallowing hard, he entered the mansion again to see if anyone was there.

Making his way through the Mansion, the anxiety and fear Ness felt steadily grew. After checking every room and finding nothing, he reluctantly stepped back outside, with no idea of what to do next. However, his thoughts were soon interrupted by a loud scream coming from the nearby wilderness. Ness straightened up and listened again and another scream echoed in the air. It was a high scream, and although it definitely wasn't Donkey Kong, Ness ran as fast as he could to where it was coming from. Running wildly through bushes and overgrown grass, he looked around for any sign of the source of the scream, when suddenly, it came from almost right next to him.

Pulling some branches out of the way, Ness' eyes fell upon a terrible sight. One of his fellow Smashers lay, mortally injured, with her eyes shut from fatigue and her wounds. Ness crept forwards and slowly lifted up her bloodiest arm to see how bad her wounds were. He instantly felt nauseous as he saw just how badly she was wounded, and he uncontrollably let out a nervous cry at the deep gash over her stomach. Cautiously bringing his hand to move her sleek, blond hair away from her face, he gasped as he saw her once beautiful face, covered in blood and bruises. He slowly shook her, and whispered nervously,

"Samus! Samus, please wake up!"

Ness anxiously pressed his hand against Samus' wound and concentrated as hard as he could on healing her, but the panic prevented him from focussing, and Ness panicked even more when he couldn't heal her. He pressed harder on the wound and closed his eyes, and luckily, this time he was able to concentrate. He felt a small energy beating inside him, but it started to move around. It slowly moved to his shoulder, then down his arm to his hand, then it stayed on the gash over Samus' stomach, where his hand was placed, and glowed for a second before disappearing, leaving the wound completely healed.

Ness let out a sigh of relief, but his ears perked up. A small crunch came from behind him, so he slowly turned around, but saw nothing. He slowly turned back to Samus, but his eyes immediately darted to a figure he could have sworn he'd seen running through bushes. As Ness' imagination began to run wild, he wished even harder that Samus would wake up, if not for her help, for her company. However, Ness wasn't alone, which he discovered when he heard a sword being drawn. Turning around, he only caught a glimpse of Marth before the blue-haired swordsman slashed Ness aside with his blade, the Falchion.

Rolling back up, Ness pulled out his baseball bat and faced Marth, but before he could attack, he was struck again, in the back. Facing up from the ground, he saw Roy's face, fixed as an angry snarl. He gasped and tried to roll out of the way of Roy's blade as it struck the ground, but rolled into Marth's foot as he gave Ness a hearty kick. Ness flew backwards into a tree and struck it painfully, but the boy was soon on his feet again, and faced his two opponents.

Roy's snarl changed into a twisted grin as he slowly approached Ness from one side, while Marth calmly approached from the other. Ness opened his mouth to speak, and tried not to sound afraid, but failed, as he stuttered,

"You… you're Ganondorf's twin fighters aren't you…"

Roy gave the quickest of nods before charging at Ness with his sword in front of him. Ness jumped into the air to dodge, but Marth was quick enough to strike Ness upwards from the ground. Ness landed awkwardly on his ankle, but got up to continue fighting. Marth was nearest to him, so Ness grabbed him swiftly before using his telekinesis to swing him round and throw him into Roy. For a second, they were both immobilized, but Ness didn't know what to do next. He panicked, and by the time he screamed, "PK Fire!" at them, they were able to dodge and charge into him again.

Roy barged Ness over, and Marth swung his sword and sliced at the ground, forcing Ness to duck quickly to avoid being stabbed. When both Marth and Roy stood over him, he didn't have time to move, so he had to pull out his baseball bat just before the swords hit him to protect himself. Luckily, Roy's sword sliced into the baseball bat, but got stuck, even when Roy tried to pull it out again, while Marth was able to pull his sword back and use it to sweep Ness aside in a single strike. Ness jumped up, and gripped the handle of Roy's sword as hard as he could before successfully pulling it out of his bat. Roy looked worried; Ness had a powerful weapon now.

Marth leapt forwards and tried to stab Ness swiftly, but Ness used Roy's sword to lock the blades together. Marth slowly began to overpower Ness until the psychic boy let go of the sword and smashed Marth in the side of the head with his baseball bat. Roy screamed at Ness and charged, but Ness was quick enough to cast "PK Thunder" and shock him. For a second, Ness was in control, but that second ended when Marth swiped at Ness from the ground, and although Ness managed to avoid the attack, it distracted him from Roy, who dove at Ness with a huge punch that sent him staggering backwards. Holding his mouth, he tasted blood.

Ness desperately threw Roy's sword at him, but Roy dodged it easily. Marth had gotten up, and picked up Roy's sword as both the fighters walked menacingly towards Ness. Ness tried to roll out of the way, but as he stopped he felt huge pain in his leg, only to look down and see that Marth had thrown his own sword at it, causing a deep and painful wound. Ness couldn't stand, and was in too much pain to cast any magic, so he tried to push himself along the ground, but didn't get far. Marth and Roy had both regained their swords, and they were standing over a cowering Ness.

Holding his sword up above his head, Roy prepared to kill Ness instantly, but instead was suddenly grabbed by a strange blue energy-filled whip, which barely gave him enough time to look confused before it pulled him back and slammed him into a tree with such force that it made an imprint. Roy fell to the ground and didn't get up. He looked unconscious. Ness turned to the direction of the whip, only to see Samus, finally awake, in her Zero suit, ready for a fight. Through gritted teeth, she muttered,

"Leave the kid alone!"

Before Marth could answer back, Samus grabbed him with the whip as well, but Marth used his sword to cut through it before he could be flung away like Roy. As much as Ness would have wanted to cheer on Samus, he swallowed the pain he felt from his leg and focussed as hard as he could on healing it.

Marth tried to get a few quick attacks in on Samus, but she was more agile than him and dodged each blow. Before Marth could react, Samus pulled out her stunner and, with a blinding flash, Marth was momentarily paralyzed. That was all the time Samus needed to swing one of her powerful legs and kick him in the face as hard as she could. However, Marth recovered quickly and countered with his sword, making Samus dive back on the ground to avoid being hit. Marth angrily swung his sword with lightning speed, and although Samus was able to dodge, she ended up having to dive away from Marth, and accidentally landed on Roy's sword. She let out a startled scream, but luckily, the damage was only a small cut. Unfortunately, this caused a distraction that Marth had been waiting for, as he charged at Samus with lightning speed with his sword point at Samus' head.

With a deafening crack, Ness' baseball bat swung swiftly into Marth's head with the full force of the child behind it. Collapsing from the blow, Marth fell into an unconscious state, as Samus looked up to see Ness, fully healed by now. However, with Marth and Roy defeated, she was anything but relaxed.

"Ness, what's going on? Why are they attacking us? Where's everyone else!?"

Ness let out a deep sigh and explained everything as detailed as he could to Samus. As he mentioned Donkey Kong, she slapped her hand against her forehead.

"Donkey Kong… I remember something… I was in captivity with the rest of the Smashers when some people brought him in… I remember overhearing Ganondorf talking about having trouble finding room for him… I guess… I guess they needed my room badly... but how were they getting Donkey Kong to come in so peacefully?"

For the next few minutes, Ness told Samus everything that had happened, including Ganondorf, King Dedede and Olimar, and the mind control devices. It wasn't long before she understood the situation, but they still had the task of getting away from Marth and Roy before they woke up.

"Ness," Samus said sharply, "Do you know anywhere we can go?"

Ness racked his brains, and remembered vaguely how he had got from the cave to Smash Mansion, and where Smash Mansion was from where he and Samus were. Leading the way slowly, Ness reached the cave he had spent the previous night in, but by the time they arrived, it was already dark.

"If we get some rest tonight, we can try and rescue Donkey Kong tomorrow, ok Ness?" Samus said sleepily.

"Ok. Night Samus… thanks for earlier…" Ness replied, taking off his cap and trying to get comfortable on the soft ground.

"Thanks for what?"

"For waking up in time to save me from Marth and Roy," Ness said, yawning. "If you hadn't woken up then… I'd probably be dead. So thanks…"

"You're welcome. You know that if you hadn't healed me, I'd probably be dead too," Samus ruffled Ness' hair, "You're stronger than you think Ness."

"I guess. Night, Samus…"

The two were almost asleep when they heard a small noise outside, as if someone was there. Ness was still half-asleep, but Samus still seemed alert.

"You stay here and rest, Ness. I think I should keep a lookout for a while. Ganondorf's probably still got people looking for us."

Ness had no problems with this idea, and if he did, he had no chance to say them before he lay back down and fell asleep again as Samus slowly and warily stepped outside.

"So, how's Donkey Kong?" Samus asked Ganondorf, both standing quietly outside the cave.

"He's angry now, especially because I had to take his mind control device and use it on you, but he'll get used to it there. How's Ness?"

"He needed me to bail him out of Marth and Roy earlier, but everything else was just like you said it would be. He healed me fine. Should we try to take him while he's asleep now, or should I bring him to you tomorrow?"

"Bring him tomorrow. Tell him you know where the base is, and that you want to help him rescue Donkey Kong. Then, when he arrives, try to subdue him quickly. According to Roy, it's something you're quite good at."

"Will do," replied Samus with a nod as for a split second, her and Ganondorf stood in silence, before they each turned their separate ways, with Ganondorf going back to the base, and Samus going back into the cave to tell Ness that the noise was a false alarm, but just for the split second they were still, the moonlight reflected perfectly off both of their mind control devices.


	7. Rescue

"Ness, wake up, it's morning."

Samus' voice woke Ness as he groggily opened his eyes and looked around. It was still dark in the cave, but it was light enough to see Samus, and she was cautiously leaving the cave. Ness stood up quickly and followed her out. As he left the cave, he saw that it was dawn, the best time to attack Ganondorf's base. Samus seemed to think so too, as she scaled a nearby tree and scouted the area to try and see where she had been taken under Ganondorf's orders. Ness was about to ask if she'd spotted anything, when suddenly, she pointed her laser whip at him and it coiled around him for a second before dragging him up the tree next to her. When the whip uncoiled itself, Ness turned to Samus, who remained silent, but was pointing to a large group of trees in the distance.

"The base is in the middle of that forest," Samus said, "We should try to attack early."

Ness nodded as Samus started to climb back down the tree. Ness tried to follow her down, but slipped and fell, landing roughly on the ground. Standing up quickly, he shook off the dirt and started to follow Samus through the trees to the base.

After walking silently for a few hours, Samus paused, before clambering up another tree quickly and trying to find out exactly where they were. Ness chose to wait on the ground this time, but when Samus didn't come down, he nervously called up after her, only to find that she was gone. Panicking, he quickly calmed down when he heard her voice coming from somewhere further into the forest. Turning around, he saw that she was only a few metres ahead of him, but before he moved, she commanded,

"Wait! Climb up the tree, then climb over here."

Ness was confused, but did as he was told. When he jumped out of the trees back down to Samus, he was about to ask why they had to take a detour, but before he could speak, Samus picked up a rock and threw it onto the space between where Ness and Samus were now, and where they had been a minute ago. For a second, the ground stayed silent, before a violent explosion came from under the ground, blowing anything above it to pieces. Clods of earth flew around, and Ness was blown back by the force of the explosion, but Samus had been prepared for this, and had ducked and covered her ears before anything had happened. Ness sat up and looked at Samus, terrified, but she just grinned cheekily.

"I think they're expecting us."

The journey continued as normal, except with Samus stopping them both every few minutes to point out a trap and then make sure they avoided it. It was then that Ness decided to ask Samus the question that had been on his mind.

"Samus? If Ganondorf is being mind-controlled too, then who is really behind all of this?"

Samus gritted her teeth and replied, "I don't know, and right now, I don't care. Getting the rest of our friends safely out of the base is all I care about at the moment. When more of the Smashers are free, then we can try to figure out who we're fighting. Hold it!"

Samus stopped Ness and pointed at the ground he was about to step on. Ness anxiously asked,

"Is that a trap too?"

Samus didn't respond, but instead made her way onto the ground, searching for something. Before Ness could figure out what was going on, Samus gave a quick sigh of relief and uncovered a small hook. Grabbing it and pulling as hard as she could, she gave a small grunt as the ground before them was pulled up. Ness' eyes went wide. The ground they were standing on was a trapdoor.

Heaving the way open, Samus wasted no time in walking inside, whereas Ness was much more cautious and nervous. Stepping slowly inside, he made his way down a dirt slope, finally catching up with Samus, who had impatiently been waiting for him at the top of some metal stairs.

"Ok, Ness, the hall where our friends are is just down these stairs. I'm a big target for them to hit with a mind-control device. I think you should go in first and try to rescue Donkey Kong. There are probably some of Ganondorf's minions in there, but I reckon you can take care of them. If you look like you're in trouble, I'll come out and help."

Samus noticed Ness' growing nervous, so she patted him on the shoulder.

"You'll be fine kid, trust me."

Ness gulped and slowly made his way down the stairs. Peeking slowly into the hall, he caught his first glimpse of all the locked up Smashers. Most of them were still asleep, but some of them were beginning to wake up. Ness stepped out slowly and peered around. Nobody noticed him, so he was safe for now. Quietly making his way past a few cages, he spotted the one he'd been looking for.

Donkey Kong groaned and woke up, remembering where he was, and remembering how he'd let down everyone for letting himself be caught. Rubbing his head, he slowly sat up and waited for everyone else to wake up too, until he heard moving. Turning to his side, his eyes widened as he saw Ness sprinting towards his cage as fast as he could.

By now, Ness had gained the attention of the other Smashers, and the ones who had been asleep were now waking up to see what was happening. Unfortunately, Ganondorf heard this too.

Seeing Ness, Ganondorf was enraged, and immediately screamed "Attack!"

Ness didn't have time to turn around and see who Ganondorf was talking to before a sword was thrown at him. Ducking out of instinct, it flew over his head and stuck itself in the ground. Running towards the sword and picking it up, Ness turned around and immediately had to use it to defend himself from Marth and Roy. Using Marth's sword, Ness deflected the blows from Roy, and while Marth was trying to figure out what to do, Ness lifted him telekinetically and slammed him into a cage, where he was electrocuted by Ganondorf's defences.

Roy let out a gasp as he saw what happened to Marth, but when he looked back to Ness, the youngster had grabbed him by the legs and spun him around, throwing him into the approaching Pichu. When Pichu got up, he was greeted by Ness' shoe in his face, and the stunned Pokemon was soon wrapped up by Ness' yoyo and flung into Roy. This appeared to be all the troops Ganondorf could muster at the moment, so Ness put back his yoyo and ran back to Donkey Kong's cage, when he felt himself being tied up with something. Looking down, he saw Samus' whip tightly coiled around his body, and although he struggled, he couldn't get out of it.

Ganondorf let out a loud laugh as Ness continued to struggle, but couldn't escape Samus' whip. Turning his head, he could just see Samus as she said to Ganondorf,

"I brought you a present, master."

Ness kept silent and continued to struggle, eventually getting one of his arms free, but not being able to do anything with it. Ganondorf laughed even harder, saying,

"Samus has been under my control the entire time, Ness. Did you really think that you alone would be able to save your friends? That's pathetic, even for you."

Ness interrupted Ganondorf, saying, "Did you really think I didn't know Samus was being controlled? That's stupid, even for you!"

Ganondorf was taken aback, but quickly countered Ness' argument. "Well, if you knew that she was being controlled, why did you let this happen?"

Ness gave a cheeky grin and muttered, "Don't underestimate me," before taking his free arm and grabbing firmly onto the bars of Donkey Kong's cage. Within seconds, he was in excruciating pain, but he knew that the electricity would be travelling through him, through the whip, and down to Samus. Ness knew that Samus' technology would be more advanced than Ganondorf's cages. He was right.

After a few more minutes passed, although they felt like hours, the wires at the top of the cage started to send sparks flying out, before eventually breaking completely. Samus and Ness collapsed on the floor, while Ness had just enough energy to say, "Donkey Kong… get out!"

Now that the cage wasn't protected, Donkey Kong furiously grabbed the bars and tried to bend them, but they were too strong. Getting angrier, Donkey Kong punched the bars, but they still didn't move. Grabbing the bars again, he pushed against them with all of his might, but they still didn't budge.

In front of the cage, Ness was beginning to get nervous, but he could barely stand up. Unfortunately, Samus hadn't been knocked out by the electricity either, and now, she was mad. Picking up Ness, she threw him as hard as she could into another cage, electrocuting him more. As more of Ganondorf's minions were waking up, and now Falco, Dr Mario and Young Link were awake, Ness was really in trouble. Samus stormed over to Ness, picked him up again, and slammed him into another cage. Donkey Kong saw this, and felt furious that she was attacking a weak child. Feeling his fury rising, he pulled the bars again, but they still didn't move.

Ness opened his eyes weakly, only to be slammed into another cage again. Samus walked over to him again, and kicked him as hard as she could in the stomach. He let out a small groan and almost passed out, when she picked him up again, and was about to throw him into another cage, when a large roar distracted them both. Looking across, they saw Donkey Kong, who still couldn't have broken the bars, so he had lifted up the entire cage instead and held it above his head. Samus dropped Ness, who rolled out of the way as Donkey Kong threw the cage across the room at her. She tried to dodge it, but it struck one of her legs, causing a loud crack. Samus screamed, then collapsed and didn't move.

Donkey Kong rushed over to the unconscious Ness, only to be intercepted by Dr Mario and Young Link. Getting angrier, Donkey Kong grabbed Dr Mario and used him as a club to smack Young Link into a wall. Rushing to Ness again, Donkey Kong was distracted by Toon Link, Wolf and ROB, who were all ready to fight him, and Falco was quickly joining the fight. Donkey Kong looked like he was in trouble, until a Pikmin flew through the air, landing on Wolf and distracting the group. Looking at the source, Donkey Kong saw that Olimar and King Dedede were inside their cage, furiously pulling up Pikmin and Waddle-dees, to throw at Donkey Kong's enemies.

By now, Ness had gotten back to his feet, but as he slowly made his way into the fight, he tapped Donkey Kong's shoulder, distracting him from punching Falco, as he pointed to King Dedede and Olimar's cage, and whispered, "I think… we should save them too."

Donkey Kong looked up at the wires, and in a second, he had grabbed Toon Link's sword while the swordsman had been busy trying to shake off the Pikmin, and handed it to Ness. Picking up Ness, he threw him near the wires at the top of the cage, and Ness just had the energy to grab onto one of them. As he wasn't touching the ground, he wasn't electrocuted, and managed to swing closer to the top of the cage. Hanging one with one hand and holding Toon Link's sword with the other, Ness gave a yell as he cut through the wires with it. Cutting the wire that he was on, he was able to swoop down and give Falco a flying kick, knocking him to the other side of the room, before letting go and rushing to help Donkey Kong lifting up the cage surrounding King Dedede and Olimar. With King Dedede trying to lift it as well, it didn't take long for them to pick it up and hurl it at their enemies. It missed them, but now King Dedede and Olimar were free too.

Looking at their opponents, Donkey Kong saw that they were now fighting Falco, Roy, Pichu, Dr Mario, Young Link, Wolf, Toon Link, Mr Game & Watch, and ROB, and although Donkey Kong had succeeded in freeing some of his friends, there was no way they could take on all of these opponents. Having a brainwave, Donkey Kong turned to his friends and said "Try to hold them for a few seconds. I have an idea…"

Running through the enemies, Donkey Kong made his way to the unconscious forms of Marth and Samus, picking them up and carrying them back to Ness, who was doing a decent job of holding off the attackers, but after all, he was being supported by an army of Pikmin and Waddle-dees. Ness saw what Donkey Kong was doing and picked up Young Link, who had been knocked out by the fighting. Turning to Dedede and Olimar, Ness screamed, "Retreat!" and started to run for the stairs.

With Donkey Kong following, and King Dedede and Olimar not far behind, they started to run out of the base. Their attackers tried to follow, firing electric attacks, arrows, and in Roy's case, even throwing his sword, but they couldn't stop Ness, Donkey Kong, Olimar, and Dedede from escaping.

After making their way out of the trapdoor, the foursome kept running until they felt they were at a safe distance. While King Dedede was trying to get his breath back, he noticed that Donkey Kong and Ness had brought out Marth, Samus and Young Link, and he puffed, "Why did you bring them out? You want us to be attacked again?"

Ness didn't answer, but slowly made his way over to Samus. Looking under her hair, he found the mind-control device placed on her neck and plucked it off. Handing it to Donkey Kong, he said, "You can do the honours," before Donkey Kong placed the device on the ground and stamped on it. Finding the mind-control device on Marth, he took it off and let King Dedede smash it with his mallet, and when he found the one under Young Link's hat, he took out his baseball bat and destroyed it.

"Well, what do we do now?" said Olimar.

"There are seven of us, and there's about the same number of them. I think we should let these three wake up, and tomorrow, we can attack." Ness looked around excitedly. "We're attacking. We're going to rescue our friends, once and for all."


	8. Battle

The sun rose slowly over the seven heroes as morning dawned. Marth was the first to wake up, followed by Samus and Young Link. Looking around, they realised they were sleeping outside, in a forest, and the sun was rising. These three had no idea where they were, and Marth was about to ask if they had any idea what was going on, but as soon as he opened his mouth, he heard an abnormally large snore coming from behind some trees. Taking a few steps, he found King Dedede curled up on the floor, with Olimar sleeping near him. When Samus and Young Link followed Marth, they both spotted Donkey Kong and Ness sleeping against some trees. Trying to shake King Dedede didn't work, and it didn't work on Donkey Kong either, so Samus picked up Ness and shook him violently until he gave a small scream and woke up.

"Ness, where the hell are we? The last thing I remember, I was trapped in a cage by Ganondorf and the other Smashers, and now I'm out here?"

Ness tried to answer, but Marth was quicker.

"Ganondorf has the Smashers? The last thing I remember is leaving Smash Mansion with Roy because Master Hand told me I wouldn't be returning!"

The discussion was quickly getting out of hand as Young Link joined in.

"I was leaving too, then everything went black!"

"What happened?" Marth demanded, raising his sword at Ness. "Did you do this?"

Samus' grip around Ness tightened as he nervously tried to explain, but he was interrupted yet again by Young Link.

"Wait, I remember Master Hand telling me something before I left! He said Ness would be leaving too!"

Marth turned from the young swordsman back to Ness as he muttered, "So is that what you did? You found out you were leaving so you kidnapped us or something?"

Ness spluttered as Samus' grip got even tighter, but he only felt the pain for a few seconds, because Donkey Kong had woken up, and when he saw that people were hurting Ness, he flew a powerful punch into Samus, breaking her grip on Ness and sending her flying into King Dedede, who woke up after being pelted with someone.

"Don't you dare lay a finger on her, you giant ape!" screamed Marth as he charged towards Donkey Kong, but was tripped up by Ness. Turning around, Ness saw that Olimar was awake, and he started trying to defend King Dedede from Samus. Marth was still trying to land a hit on Donkey Kong, and Young Link was charging at Ness himself. Sidestepping swiftly, Ness took in a deep breath and shouted,

"STOP!"

The Smashers paused for a second and looked at him. Samus currently had her laser-whip around King Dedede's hammer, but there was also a large number of Pikmin on her back. Young Link had just got back to his feet, and Marth had his sword held against one of Donkey Kong's arms. For a split-second, they all stopped fighting, before a Pikmin bashed itself against Samus and everyone started attacking each other again. Sighing, Ness made his way to Olimar, grabbed his whistle, and blew it as loudly as he could. All of the Pikmin on Samus stopped attacking her, and everyone covered their ears due to the loud screech it made.

As everyone turned slowly to Ness, he spoke quietly, but loud enough to be heard.

"Samus, Marth, and Young Link, please sit down and we will tell you what happened."

Samus eyed Olimar and Dedede suspiciously, but sat down. Marth and Young Link quickly did the same, and Ness took in a deep breath before explaining everything that had happened in the last four days. As the story progressed, Samus, Marth and Young Link looked more impressed at Donkey Kong and Ness, and how they had managed to avoid being beaten. When the story ended, Marth had a question.

"So, you four are going back to fight today?"

"Yes." Ness paused. "Four? You're not coming with us?"

Samus and Marth looked at each other uneasily, while Donkey Kong and Ness' face both fell. Luckily, Young Link wasn't as reluctant.

"Well, you can count me in. If Ganondorf has Link and Zelda, it's my duty to try and save them."

Marth seemed to consider Young Link's point of view for a second, before adding, "Well… they did capture Roy… Fine, I'm in."

Everyone looked at Samus for a few seconds before she sighed and muttered, "I'm in too…"

"Well, I hate to break up this lovely moment," said King Dedede, "But shouldn't be attacking them about now?"

Ness agreed and started to lead the way, remembering as well as he could where Samus had led him the day before. It wasn't too long before the seven Smashers were treading on familiar ground, until they were stopped by Donkey Kong, who held out his arm to stop them and suddenly said to Ness,

"Didn't you say that when you came here yesterday, there were traps?"

Everyone paused and instinctively looked around to try and spot any traps, but it looked like they were safe for now.

"Whew, don't startle me like that." Said King Dedede, wiping his forehead and absentmindedly stepping backwards, setting off a large explosion as he stepped on something he shouldn't have. Screaming, he covered his head and started to run out of panic. The rest of the group screamed to him to stop and ran after him, but he didn't listen. With all seven of them running now, they covered their ears as more explosions came from various directions. Ness was blown off his feet by one of the blasts, but caught by Samus, who kept running while holding him. When King Dedede eventually ran out of breath, he slowed down to a stop and started panting. Suddenly, he pointed to a hole in the ground where the soil sloped down to a metal staircase. The moment King Dedede got his breath back, he smile and proudly said, "See, wasn't it quicker just to run?"

Getting nothing but some glares from the other Smashers, he decided to keep his mouth shut. None of the Smashers seemed eager to go down the stairs, so Donkey Kong went first, followed by King Dedede, then Ness and Olimar, and then Young Link, while Marth and Samus brought up the rear. Slowly making their way down, they tried to prepare themselves for battle, and eventually, Donkey Kong reached the bottom of the staircase. Pausing, he turned back to the others and muttered, "We're here," before slowly entering the giant hall containing his friends.

Ness ran after him first, followed by King Dedede and Olimar, while Young Link ran in next, followed by Marth and Samus. As the group slowly looked around, they saw that their friends were still asleep, and they hoped that their enemies would be too. Making their way slowly through the huge room, they all stood still and fell silent as they heard a voice echoing through the room. Ganondorf's voice rang clear, saying only two words.

"They're here."

Instantly, the group of Smashers heard noises, and Ganondorf's minions presented themselves. Falco, Dr Mario, Pichu, ROB, Wolf, Toon Link, Roy, and Mr Game & Watch lined themselves up, facing their seven opponents. There was an uneasy pause for a moment, before Ganondorf screamed, "Attack!"

Falco ran towards Marth, shooting his blaster along the way, leaving Marth stunned. Before he could regain control, Falco jumped towards him and delivered a flying kick, sending Marth to the floor. However, as Falco ran towards Marth to deal more damage, he was swiped with the sword as Marth stood back up. Marth angrily charged at Falco, who tried to sidestep, but wasn't quick enough to avoid being hit by the tip of Marth's blade. Cursing Marth angrily, Falco rolled towards him and used his reflector as soon as he stood up, stunning Marth to the ground.

Samus was charged at by Wolf, who tried to use his sharp claws to slash through her Zero Suit, but she was able to roll out of the way. Grabbing her laser whip, she coiled it around his body and slammed him into the ground, but he quickly sprung to his feet and used his blaster to shoot her in the hand, forcing her to drop the whip. As soon as she ducked to try and pick it up, Wolf pounced on her roughly, using his claws to scratch her through her suit. Samus gave a scream of pain while Wolf howled in victory, before Samus' fist blasted into his face and he was forced to step back.

Both Roy and Dr Mario charged at Young Link, and while Roy used his sword to force Young Link to defend himself, Dr Mario aimed a quick kick at the young boy's legs, sending him sprawling onto the ground. Roy gave a short laugh and aimed his sword at Young Link, but his target rolled out of the way just in time, leaving Roy to stab his sword into the ground and get it stuck long enough for Young Link to get up and quickly fire an arrow at Roy's hand, making him lose grip on the sword. Dr Mario aimed a pill at Young Link, but it was too slow to hit him, and Young Link easily hit it back with his sword, before using his boomerang to send Roy falling to the floor.

Pichu jumped at King Dedede, who swiped the creature aside with one swing of his mallet, straight into ROB, who had charged at Olimar. Olimar was currently plucking as many Pikmin as he could to help out, and so far he had made an army of at least 30. With a blow of his whistle, Olimar pointed at ROB, and his Pikmin started to attack. Ignoring ROB, Olimar ran past him to Pichu, who was still recovering from Dedede's mallet, when Olimar dived at him, and frantically pulled the small metal mind-control device off the creature as quickly as he could. With a proud smile, he threw it to the ground and stamped on it as hard as he could. He wasn't the strongest of fighters, but he still managed to break it, and he heard a voice saying, "Good job Olimar!"

Turning to see who was speaking, he saw Ness giving him a thumbs-up sign whilst trying to avoid sausages that were being flung at him by Mr Game & Watch. Running through the barrage of projectiles, Ness shouted "PK Fire," and trapped Mr Game & Watch in a small pillar of flames. When they died down, Ness' opponent didn't have time to move before Ness brought his baseball bat down on his head, smashing him to the ground. It wasn't hard to spot a mind-control device on a 2-D person, and Ness quickly pulled it off while Mr Game & Watch was still dazed. Smashing the device with his baseball bat, Ness turned around just in time to see King Dedede grabbing hold of Toon Link, who had been disarmed by Donkey Kong. Donkey Kong pulled the young swordsman's hat off and easily spotted the device, pulling it from Toon Link's head with ease and smashing it on the ground with a single punch.

ROB had been pushed over by the Pikmin, and Olimar had jumped on his back, desperate to find his device too. ROB spun around at wild speed, but Olimar held on, and eventually found the device on ROB's shoulder, pulling it off with no difficulty and throwing it to the ground before King Dedede, who smashed it into pieces with his mallet. Only four opposing fighters remained.

Unfortunately for Young Link, these mind-controlled fighters had decided to try and join together to take out their enemies, so Wolf and Falco left their fights with Samus and Marth to join Roy and Dr Mario in attacking Young Link, but amazingly, he was still managing to keep them at bay. Using his sword to deflect attacks with amazing speed, he didn't have to wait long before Samus and Marth bowled over Falco and plucked the mind-control device from his wrist, while Ness used his yoyo to immobilize Wolf before taking the device from him. Donkey Kong slammed Roy onto the ground before taking his device, and Young Link himself managed to overpower Dr Mario in time to slash the device off Dr Mario's coat with unbelievable precision.

With everyone free, Donkey Kong started to explain what was going on to those who had just been freed, while Ness took Young Link aside and asked him a favour.

"Young Link, do you think you could shoot some arrows into the wires above people's cages?"

Young Link silently nodded and started firing arrows with lightning speed. All of them hit their targets perfectly, as the wires were broken and everyone's cage was powered down. Leaving King Dedede and Olimar to explain the rest of what had happened, Donkey Kong went around every cage with Ness and slowly managed to lift up every cage so that everyone could escape. The hall was quickly filled with excited talk and, in Zelda and Link's case, a tearful hug, (and in Master Hand and Crazy Hand's case, a tearful high-five) but everyone soon stopped talking as they realised that Donkey Kong and Ness were heading towards Ganondorf. Unfortunately for the Smashers who had been in cages, they still had no idea that Ganondorf was being controlled too, and they hadn't been listening when Donkey Kong had been explaining to everyone.

Zelda called for Donkey Kong to stop, so the great ape turned around, only to hear her saying,

"No offense, but I think Link should do the honours…"

Link stepped forwards towards Ganondorf, who was backing away slowly.

"Wait," interrupted Ness, "Ganondorf is being controlled too!" but no one heard him. Instead, most of the Smashers were cheering as Link approached Ganondorf until he was backed against a wall and drew the Master Sword. With a battle cry, Link swung his sword, leaving the Smashers to gasp and leaving Donkey Kong and Ness to cover their eyes. They didn't hear Ganondorf screaming, though. All they heard was Ganondorf slowly saying, "What's going on here? Where are we?"

"Don't pretend you were being controlled now, Ganondorf!" Zelda scoffed, but Link stopped her, holding up the remains of Ganondorf's cloak, which he had cut off with his sword, and which clearly had the final mind-control device.

"He's telling the truth, he was mind-controlled from the start." Link told the shocked crowd.

"But, how did you know?" asked Zelda bemusedly.

Link sighed and muttered, "The real Ganondorf wouldn't torture me. The real Ganondorf would kill me."

As a stony silence fell over the Smashers, a frightened Kirby asked one last question.

"But, if he isn't behind all this… who is?"

There was a loud crash in the ceiling as a large chunk of soil fell down, narrowly missing Lucas and Sonic. Looking up, they could see their enemy, slowly descending from his control room. Most Smashers gasped, and all moved back. Ness narrowed his eyes, while Donkey clenched his fist.

Standing before all the Smashers was the one behind their capture, the mind-control of some Smashers, and the torture of them.

It was Mewtwo.

And he looked angry.


	9. Final

Mewtwo gave an angry snarl and charged at Donkey Kong, who couldn't react in time and was pushed back to the ground. Ness and Dedede rushed forwards to help, but Mewtwo gave of a roar of pure power. There was a blinding flash, and when everyone opened their eyes, Donkey Kong was trapped with Mewtwo within a dome of pure energy. Ness whacked it with his baseball bat, and King Dedede gave it a thump with his hammer, but it wouldn't move. Link even tried to stab through it with the Master Sword, but Mewtwo's power was too strong. As Mewtwo advanced on Donkey Kong, the ape tried to attack, but Mewtwo telekinetically grabbed him and threw him into the wall of energy.

Donkey Kong groaned and got up, but Mewtwo immediately dived towards him again and tried to grab him. Dodging Mewtwo at the last second, Donkey Kong tried to hit him with the back of his leg, and just succeeded as Mewtwo was pushed against his own wall of energy. However, this just made him angrier. Mewtwo kept his distance from Donkey Kong, preparing a shadow ball, while the other Smashers were still trying to find a way to break into the dome. Donkey Kong figured that he had to try and stall Mewtwo, so he asked the question on every Smasher's mind.

"Why did you do all this?"

Mewtwo paused for a second before realising that if he was going to kill Donkey Kong, he might as well explain why.

"Envy."

Mewtwo gave another snarl and charged at Donkey Kong, but he dodged again. Firing a shadow ball, Mewtwo laughed as it struck Donkey Kong, sending him crashing to the floor. Donkey Kong's rucksack flew off and landed near the edge of the dome, but the ape was concentrating on avoiding Mewtwo's attacks. Looking for a distraction, he tried to stall Mewtwo again.

"Envy? Who were you jealous of?"

Mewtwo was getting angrier with every question that Donkey Kong asked him.

"Stop trying to stall me, fool!"

"No, really," emphasized Donkey Kong, "You were one of the most powerful Smashers, who would you be jealous of?"

Mewtwo gave an angry roar and screamed, "That's WHY I was jealous!"

Donkey Kong took a few steps back, but Mewtwo looked like he was finally calming down.

"When I was invited to Smash Mansion, I was intrigued by the fighting. I could show everyone my power, and people wouldn't be angry at me like they normally were. I fought, I won, and I lost. I didn't care. People were impressed by me, they celebrated me. For the first time in my life, people cheered at my power. I… liked it there. It wasn't like the rest of the world. People didn't run at the sight of me, or call me a monster. I was accepted. I felt like… I had friends.

Then, things changed. One day, Master Hand was asking me to take part in Event 51…"

Donkey Kong remembered what Mewtwo was talking about. Event 51 had been an activity in the mansion when one fighter went up against Giga Bowser, Ganondorf, and Mewtwo. If Donkey Kong remembered correctly, only Jigglypuff, Captain Falcon, and Link had successfully beaten it.

"One day, Master Hand was asking me to take part in Event 51, the next… I had to leave."

Donkey Kong was taking steps back from Mewtwo, who sounded as if he was going to fly into a rage at any second.

"No reason why, I just had to leave. The 'Newcomers' needed more room, he said. It had been nice having me, he said. Yet, as humiliating as it was, I left. Leaving the only place I had ever called home was hard, but I accepted it, and reluctantly I went back to Kanto, back to roam the countryside and avoid trainers. Then, one day, I found an old newspaper, and the words 'Smash Tournament' caught my eye. That was the mistake you made, Master Hand. The moment I read that headline, I knew I must have revenge."

"What did it say," asked Donkey Kong, who was beginning to forget that he was fighting Mewtwo.

"The headline was about Lucario. The article went on about what a joyful occasion it was, as Lucario had been invited to Smash Mansion to compete in the tournament."

Turning to Master Hand, Mewtwo gave him an angry glare.

"Not enough room for me, but room enough for another dark Pokémon? Do you have any idea how rejected that can make you feel? Rejection can hurt, and hurt can cause anger…"

Donkey Kong was no longer trying to stall Mewtwo, but he still had a question.

"But, what exactly were you trying to do?"

"I was trying," whispered Mewtwo, "To be Master Hand. I just wanted to be involved in the tournament. But no, you all refused to fight! You do realise, if anyone had fought, I would have had you healed and you would have gone unpunished. But nobody was willing to participate in MY tournament."

Ness interrupted, banging on the side of the dome. Mewtwo impatiently snapped at the boy, yelling through it, "What do you want, interfering brat!?"

"We saw you! You were with Falco, when you faked an attack on the newcomers, Toon Link, Wolf and ROB!"

Mewtwo scoffed as if Ness had just told him the sky was blue.

"Of course I was there, that was a risky part of my plan and I had to make sure it went correctly. But there are no risks now. You threw me out of your tournament, and you ruined mine, so I'll make sure you never compete in any tournament, ever again!" shouted Mewtwo, charging at Donkey Kong again and slamming him into the ground. He had charging a shadow ball whilst talking, unbeknownst to everyone. He fired it quickly at Donkey Kong, only for the huge ape to dodge and counter with a giant punch. Mewtwo wasn't the only one who had been charging a move.

Mewtwo was stunned, giving Donkey Kong the chance to use his spinning move, landing separate blows on his foe. Mewtwo grew angrier with each blow, eventually grabbing Donkey Kong and swinging him around over his head before throwing him into the side of the dome. Donkey Kong got up quickly, but was soon approached again by Mewtwo, who used dark energy to cloud Donkey Kong's vision and confuse him. Donkey Kong roared and closed his eyes, but when he opened them, he was dazed, and could see three different Mewtwo's. Focussing, he readied a punch and aimed it at the Mewtwo in the middle, which, as luck would have it, turned out to be the real one.

Mewtwo flew backwards into the dome, but Donkey Kong seemed reluctant to try and land another hit on him. Mewtwo gave a loud roar and started preparing another shadow ball, but he didn't stop when it grew big. Instead, he kept on focussing energy on it as it grew as large as him, then as large as Donkey Kong, then even larger. When Mewtwo was finished, his eyes were purple with pure power.

"In all those tournaments, I was holding back, now I'll show you all how powerful I can be!"

Just as Donkey Kong started to step back, he was interrupted by Ness again, who was furiously pounding on the dome, trying to get his attention. It was hard to hear, but Ness kept screaming,

"Mewtwo's a Pokémon, he's a Pokémon," and pointing furiously at Donkey Kong's old rucksack.

Trusting Ness' instincts, Donkey Kong ran to his rucksack and quickly opened it, looking for something to give him a clue of what Ness was talking about. Seeing nothing but bananas and the odd scrap of paper, suddenly, Donkey Kong remembered something he had seen at the beginning of his adventure.

"_Donkey Kong had taken quick looks in everyone's rooms to see if they had anything that could help him on his rescue attempt, but found mostly nothing. In the Pokémon Trainer's room, he found a spare rucksack. Donkey Kong immediately looked inside the rucksack, but was disappointed to find only a spare Pokéball inside."_

Finally finding the Pokéball, Donkey Kong turned around to face his opponent, but he barely had time to see Mewtwo before he fired the shadow ball straight at Donkey Kong. Frozen to the spot, Donkey Kong could do nothing as the huge ball of dark energy flew towards him.

And… bounced off.

Looking down in amazement, Donkey Kong couldn't believe that he wasn't harmed, until he came across the small metal badge that Ness had given him. The Franklin badge had saved Ness' life countless times, and now it had saved Donkey Kong's.

Mewtwo was astonished that the shadow ball had bounced off, and couldn't stop it from returning. With an agonised yell, Mewtwo was hit with his own dark energy, as he fell to the floor and let out loud snarls of pain and anger. Just as he looked up, he saw Donkey Kong holding what Mewtwo could see was the Master Ball.

"No! You can't! How did you… No!"

Donkey Kong threw the ball at his enemy, and for a second, it looked as if it wasn't going to do anything, before it opened, shining light upon Mewtwo, who screamed at it. Then, unfelt by everyone else, it seemed as if the Master Ball was sucking Mewtwo in. Mewtwo tried to hold onto something, but nothing was there to hold. With a final dark scream, the dome surrounding him and Donkey Kong disappeared as Mewtwo was sucked into the Master Ball and captured.

He was defeated. It was over.


	10. Epilogue

For a second, the room was silent as Mewtwo had been captured, before the Smashers gave a mighty cheer to Donkey Kong, who was exhausted, but relieved. As all of the Smashers came over to congratulate him, he slowly made his way through the crowd to Ness.

They were both silent, until Donkey Kong took off the Franklin Badge and handed it back to the youngster.

"Thanks for all the help Ness, but I don't think I need this any more."

Ness took the badge silently a smiled, before his face fell and his eyes began to water.

"I… just remembered. Now that this is all over, I still have to leave."

Donkey Kong felt sad realizing that his new friend would still have to leave the tournament and return home. However, a loud conversation between Master Hand and Samus was taking place behind them, and most people were beginning to listen to it.

"So, if Mewtwo was defeated, who does this giant base belong to?"

"Well," Master Hand replied to Samus, "I think as Donkey Kong and Ness did most of the work, it belongs to them now."

Donkey Kong barely had time to react as Samus walked up to him and dropped a bag of 30,000 space credits into his hand, saying,

"I'll give you this if I can have this base to house the space thieves I'm hunting. After all, I heard a few weeks a go that a lot of them escaped, and I'll get some big rewards for hunting them down, and even bigger rewards if I can provide the space federation with another jail."

Donkey Kong nodded, stunned by the money, before hearing Ness saying, "Way to go, Donkey Kong." Turning to Ness, Donkey Kong could see the young boy. His friend. Holding the money, Donkey Kong walked towards Master Hand and handed it to him, asking,

"If you spend this money expanding Smash Mansion, could we get more people returning?"

Master Hand was taken aback, but only needed a few seconds to think about it before replying, "I don't see why not!"

Master Hand immediately pointed to various people and told them they could be returning.

"Ness, change of plans, you're back in! Ganondorf, you too! Marth, Falco, you can come back!"

Donkey Kong took one look at Ness and saw how overjoyed he was to be returning, and Donkey Kong immediately knew that he'd made the right decision. With a smile on everyone's faces, Donkey Kong thought his problems were over until he remembered one small thing. In his hand, he was still clutching a very powerful Pokéball, with a very dark inhabitant. After thinking for a short time, Donkey Kong decided that he'd already had to make too many choice today, so he walked back to Ness, patted him on the back, and muttered, "It's good that you're staying," truthfully, and handed Ness the Pokéball.

Ness looked at Donkey Kong bemusedly, so the great ape said, "You're the reason he got caught, you should decide what happens to him."

And with that, Donkey Kong gave Ness' hair a ruffle, and ran off to tell his exploits to Diddy Kong, leaving Ness with the Pokéball containing Mewtwo.

Ness didn't know what to do with it. Remembering all that he and his friend's had been put through, he considered stomping as hard as he could on the ball, or whacking it as far away as he could with his baseball bat. But then, he recalled Mewtwo's motives. Mewtwo, just like the rest of the Smashers, had just been feeling rejected ever since he was kicked out of Smash Mansion. Just like Ness himself had felt. Feeling sheepish, Ness had no idea what to do until Pokémon Trainer walked up to him and patted him on the shoulder.

"You can keep the Pokéball, and Mewtwo. It's a rare catch. Maybe you'll become a Pokémon Trainer later, like me."

Ness was about to reply when a large roar from Charizard distracted both of them. Pokémon Trainer gave a sigh as he advised Ness, "I warn you though, if you do start catching them, make sure you pay attention to them. Pokémon hate being ignored."

Before Ness could respond, Pokémon Trainer walked back to his Pokémon, patting them each and talking to them. Looking back at the Pokéball he was holding, Ness found Pokémon Trainer's words sticking in his head.

"Pokémon hate being ignored."

Looking down at the Pokéball one last time, Ness knew what to do as he approached Master Hand and asked him for a big favour…

A few weeks later…

Zelda was in the middle of a fight with Wolf, and they were both at high damages. Wolf used his blaster to stun Zelda before running up to her and using his reflector to push her away. However, his luck ended when one of the many items in the tournament fell in front of her. A Pokéball, to be precise. This would, obviously, contain a Pokémon who would help whoever released it, and Zelda was lucky enough to grab it and throw it at Wolf before he could react. There was a blinding flash, before Mewtwo appeared on the stage. Seeing his enemy, Mewtwo charged at Wolf and grabbed him, before tossing him into the air and following it up with a chain of shadow balls. As Wolf landed, Mewtwo stunned him, and by the time Wolf had recovered, he just had time to see Mewtwo finishing the charge to a Smash Attack, which sent Wolf flying off the arena.

"GAME SET!"

As Zelda and Wolf appeared back in Smash Mansion, Mewtwo also appeared back to where he had been standing when he was called into the battle. Ness had persuaded Master Hand, to let him stay at Smash Mansion, but he could only be a Pokéball character, not a fighter. Mewtwo didn't mind this, as it let others see his power, and slowly, people were beginning to accept him as they had done before. As people who had been watching the fight began to leave, Mewtwo levitated after one of them and pulled him back.

"Master Ness…?"

Ness smiled brightly as he faced Mewtwo and replied, "Yeah?"

"Thank you…"

Ness chuckled. "No problem. Just remember, just because you weren't here, doesn't mean we weren't your friends."

"I will…"

Mewtwo teleported back to his room, while Ness had to rush to the lobby of Smash Mansion, where he and Donkey Kong had been called to see an unveiling. Arriving at the lobby quickly, Ness stood next to Donkey Kong as Master Hand started to speak.

"Donkey Kong, Ness, after we expanded Smash Mansion, we had a little money left over, so…"

Master Hand lifted the sheets off two statues. The first was a huge statue of a powerhouse figure, demanding respect. A giant, stone Donkey Kong stood, complete with a stone necktie hanging down with his initials, and a stone Franklin badge stuck to his chest. The second statue was smaller, but demanded just as much attention. A young boy with a stone baseball cap looked over the hall, and in one hand he held a yoyo, and in the other, a large baseball bat.

As Donkey Kong and Ness looked over their statues, Master Hand gave an announcement for everyone to come to the lobby. The Smashers all arrived, and soon, everyone was admiring the statues. They were so busy admiring them, they didn't notice a large electric probe descending from the ceiling and electrocuting them until they were all unconscious. A few dark figures entered the room, as if the entire story was being replayed.

"Well, the Smashers didn't see that coming," muttered one of the figures, picking up Donkey Kong's body and carrying it off to a different underground base. The two masterminds of this plan stood in the middle of the room, overseeing it, until one of their minions addressed them.

"Excuse me? We're sorry, but… there's really not very many of us. We just HAVE to leave some people behind this time."

The two figures sighed and made their way over to three of the unconscious bodies.

"Well, we can't leave Donkey Kong, Ness, Olimar, Dedede, Link, Mario or Master Hand… aha!"

One of the figures whispered into the ears of it's partner, only to receive an evil chuckle as a response.

"That's a good idea. If we can't take everyone to our brand new secret base, we can leave those three. They definitely won't cause us any trouble!"

As the minions slunk out, carrying unconscious figures as they went, the three remaining fighters, Princess Peach, Diddy Kong and Yoshi all remained as the only hope to save their friends.

"Soon," one of the dark figures began, "Everyone will know the true wrath of…

As light shone through the door as more bodies were carried out, their identities were revealed.

"Pichu and Dr Mario," screamed the twosome, before joining together in an evil laugh and leaving quickly.

Soon, Peach, Diddy Kong and Yoshi were beginning to wake up, as they found the Mansion empty, and realised that they were about to start an adventure to save their friends.

Three more unlikely heroes had just started a new adventure.

Fin.

(Author's note: No, this doesn't mean there's a sequel with Peach, Yoshi and Diddy Kong, it just shows that in the end, it keeps repeating itself as the Smashers are kidnapped by more and more people. But anyway… I FINISHED IT! Yay!)

Thanks to everyone who reviewed, subscribed, favourited, or just read.


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